The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

DENNIS T. OLSON 309
predate Jubilees had already integrated the lunar and solar calendars into
one liturgical calendar. 25 Some have argued that the sequence of daily
blessings in 4Q503 may reflect this integrated employment of both lunar
and solar calendars to mark the passage of time. The daily prayers seem
to assign a blessing for each successive phase of the moon when there is
greater light or darkness (e.g., “lots of light,” frag. 51–55, line 14; “lots of
darkness” frag. 39, line 2). On the other hand, the recurring phrase,
“gates of light,” throughout the prayers (e.g., frags. 29–32, line 10) seems
to be associated with the changing yearly pattern in “the ris[ing of the
sun]” (frags. 29–32, line 11). 26 However, a recent major study of
Qumran’s calendar texts (4QCalendrical Documents and Mishmarot
texts) makes a substantive case that the Qumran community used a 364day
solar calendar and not a lunar calendar. 27
The second issue involving liturgical time is the determination of the
beginning of a new day. Does the new day begin in the evening at sunset
or in the morning at sunrise? The question may be raised in this context
since prayers in 4Q503 are designated for both the morning and the
evening. Some scholars have argued that the Qumran community was
unique in Judaism in viewing the day as beginning with the rising of the
sun (morning) rather than the setting of the sun (evening). 28 However,
the prayers of 4Q503 utilize a recurring formula to introduce the new day
of the month which assumes the evening as the beginning of that new
day: “On such and such a day of the month in the evening.” The prayers
in 4Q503 appear to reflect standard practice in other Jewish communities
Calendar of the Covenanters of the Judean Desert,” in The World of Qumran from Within:
Collected Studies (Jerusalem: Magnes; and Leiden: Brill, 1989), 147–85; repr. of rev. ed.
from “The Calendar Reckoning of the Sect from the Judaean Desert,” in Aspects of the
Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. C. Rabin and Y. Yadin; ScrHier 4; Jerusalem: Magnes, 1958; 2d
ed. 1965), 162–99.
25. The “Book of the Heavenly Luminaries” (1 Enoch 72–82) and Sirach 43:6–7 reflect
the use of an integrated solar and lunar calendar. See especially 1 Enoch 74; OTP 1:53.
26. Baumgarten, “4Q503 (Daily Prayers),” 399–407.
27. Shemaryahu Talmon, Jonathan Ben-Dov, and Uwe Glessmer, in Qumran Cave
4.XVI: Calendrical Texts (ed. S. Talmon, J. Ben-Dov, and U. Glessmer, DJD 21;
Oxford: Clarendon, 2001) (DJD 21; Oxford: Clarendon, 2001). Talmon argues that
Qumran’s solar calendar corresponds to the calendar system of the Book of the
Heavenly Luminaries (1 Enoch 72–82) and the book of Jubilees (chs. 2 and 6). This
contrasted with the 354-day lunar calendar used by the ruling priests of the Jerusalem
Temple and by the Pharisees of the Second Temple period and later appropriated by
rabbinic circles.
28. 1QS 10.10 reads, “As the day and night enters I will enter into the covenant of
God…” Talmon cites this text and uses it to argue that the “Covenanters’ order of
prayer…begins with the morning benedictions” (S. Talmon, “The Calendar of the
Covenanters,” in The World of Qumran, 175).